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These Boots Were Made for IRONMAN

Military mom Amy Cotta doesn't mind being uncomfortable, especially if it means helping military charities.

by Allison Pattillo

Amy Cotta’s triathlon journey began when she watched an Iron Girl race on TV and saw looks of joy on the participants’ faces as they crossed the finish line. "It was the joy that comes from pushing yourself, and I decided I wanted what they had," she says. Cotta was 39 at the time, and announced that she’d do a triathlon for her 40th birthday. She set her sights on Iron Girl Las Vegas.

It wasn’t a complete stretch. A competitive body builder during her teens, Cotta turned to fitness for balance in her life. She competed in fitness competitions, became a certified trainer, model and familiar TV fitness personality. She also took up mountain biking, but gave it up after injuring her back in a car accident when she was pregnant (Cotta has six children and three grandchildren).

"I always wanted to do a triathlon, but I couldn’t swim," she confesses. "Cycling hurt my back and I hated running with every fiber of my being." While waffling about signing up, Cotta learned that two family members had cancer. The realization that she was physically able to do what they couldn’t was the last push she needed: "I heard this voice in my head saying ‘get uncomfortable,’ so I did."

Cotta turned her focus toward overcoming her internal "funk and junk," which for her meant surviving the swim. She took classes and trained with a triathlon group. "When I was standing on the beach after the swim, my entire life turned 180 degrees," she recalls. "I realized I did it. I just swam almost a mile and every piece of doubt was gone."

It was Cotta’s first time swimming open water, and her first time running six miles. But she finished with a smile on her face—and was hooked. Cotta returned to Las Vegas the following year to run the Iron Girl with 11 of her friends and clients.

Two years later, Cotta’s oldest son signed up for the Marine Corps. She was proud, but grief stricken. She came across a pair of Bates boots in her closet and decided she would start putting miles on the boots as a show of support for her son as he went through training. She ran a 5K in them, and then her first half-marathon.

Cotta admits it wasn’t pretty. "By mile 11, I was crying, and snot was running down my face. But I wasn’t going to quit because I knew my son wouldn’t quit," she says. Along the way, she decided on a purpose for her races—to raise money for military charities. Training and racing in boots is always a conversation starter and being a military mom gives Cotta the credibility to discuss the plight of soldiers. She now races with a patch-adorned pack strewn with her "race angels:" ribbons of remembrance honoring fallen soldiers. (Make a donation on Cotta's donation site.)

Now 44, Cotta has run a marathon, completed a century bike ride, written the wildly successful book Six Weeks to Skinny Jeansand finished an IRONMAN 70.3—after being hit by a car mid-race.

Cotta had been heading into T2, when a left-turning car took her down. "I looked at the paramedics and told them that unless they stopped me, I was going to finish because I wasn’t out there for me. I was out there for my son and all the sons who didn’t come home," she says. A female state trooper wheeled her bike over to me, and said [the motto of the United States Marine Corps], 'Semper Fi.'"

Now in the heat of training for IRONMAN Arizona, Cotta has only been set off course once—she had to take two months off due to bulging discs in her neck and back. "During those two months, I wanted to do IRONMAN Arizona as badly as I wanted to take my next breath," she says. Spoken like a true IRONMAN.

Cotta’s advice for beginners

On training:

You don’t have to spend hours in a gym—you don’t even have to go to a gym, just move! Find something you like and do it. You aren’t going to know if you like something until you try it (the same goes for eating vegetables).

Favorite post-race splurge:

I always have chocolate milk right after a race. Then later, for my second splurge, I have a beer.

A goal for the future:

I want to do the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona. I’m not sure how I’ll get there, but I’ll find a way.